More of the TIMES LEADER article referencing me

SUNDAY TIMES LEADER ARTICLE:  http://timesleader.com/news/local-news/988269/Community-solutions:-Readers-speak-out-on-Wilkes-Barres-rising-murder-rate

REDUCING CRIME IN WILKES-BARRE

WAR ON DRUG DEMAND (users) vs.WAR ON DRUG SUPPLY (dealers)

A DISEASE MODEL instead of a LEGAL MODEL

The murder and crime rate in Wilkes-Barre is almost solely due to drugs and addictive substances. Ask any corrections officers and they will tell you that at least 80 per cent of the residents are there because of drugs or alcohol. Solve the drug problem and you solve the crime problem. Period.

INSANITY FOR 50 YEARS  “The war on drugs”  has been “A WAR ON SUPPLY”

We treat disease as a crime and the results have been horrendous.

WARFARE AGAINST DEMAND      ~    Drug test again and again.

      If you drug test on average every 30 days – you are never 

more than 30 days from the problem. This means EARLY 

INTERVENTION! We have officials in WB who have never been 

tested and they have had to live with their addiction for years. The 

pain and suffering and corruption that they have spread is 

incalculable.

ACTIVE ADDICTS

~ Medical clinics set up to treat active addicts

~ Using disease model, patients given pharmaceutical equivalent of

their drug. Many of these are already being used.

~  If users are treated well enough so that they don’t go back to

the streets… then we have effectively ended the drug trade and

the crime that goes with it.

Yes… but won’t they still be “on drugs?”

A) Yes… but they would have been anyway. The clinic setting takes away the crime element. The clinic is safer.

B)  While at the clinic… they will be getting daily reminders of treatment choices. All users truly want to stop.

C)   The neighborhood would actually be much safer as the crime that goes with the drug trade would be gone.

           

è The most important outcome? Drug dealers, and all the horrible things about them, would go away. USERS WOULD NOT NEED THEM ANYMORE.

Think about that!

SUMMARY            “WAR ON SUPPLY”         “WAR ON DEMAND”

Crime rate            Remains as is                 Drops at least 75 %

Murder rate          Remains as is                 Drops at least 75 %

Dealers               Makes $ 1million/yr         Makes nothing

Treatment            Remains as is                 Treatment available 

Health issues         Remains as is                 Issues can be

                                                         flagged at clinic